PHOTO: Coy Prevost and his Eagle teammates will take on the visiting Calgary Canucks on Saturday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre. (File photo courtesy of Pam Doyle)
UPCOMING HOME GAMES
Saturday, Feb. 13 – Calgary Canucks at Canmore – 7 PM
Monday, Feb. 15 – Calgary Mustangs at Canmore – 2 PM
If you’re a Canmore Eagle Junior A hockey player, there has to be some satisfaction in knowing that the hardest section of their 2015-16 Alberta Junior Hockey League regular season schedule is now behind them.
The Eagles, who have played seven of their last eight games in enemy arenas, wrapped up the most difficult portion of their schedule with a tough 4-3 overtime loss to the Okotoks Oilers on Friday night in Okotoks, but still managed to pick up a very valuable point in the AJHL Southern Division standings.
As a result, the Eagles now find themselves alone in fourth-place in the AJHL Southern Division standings with a record of 21-24-6 and 48 points, three points up on the fifth-place Drumheller Dragons. The fourth-place finisher receives home-ice advantage when the playoffs begin in early March. The Eagles, who will play six of their remaining nine regular season games on home ice, also enjoy a game in hand on the Dragons.
In Friday night’s OT loss to Okotoks, the Eagles received a two-goal performance from leading scorer Matt Forchuk (26 & 27th) and a powerplay marker from Brett Radford (18th), while defenceman Braiden Doucette added a pair of assists.
“Anything can happen during 3 on 3 OT hockey, and unfortunately they were able to capitalize and score the game winner,” said Eagles Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “We did a good job to make sure we got a point tonight. We hit a few posts early in the game, but they just didn’t go in for us tonight. We did play our best hockey in the third period and we are going to have to build on that for Saturday’s game.”
The Eagles will open their current four-game home stand with a very important game against the hard charging Calgary Canucks on Saturday night at the Canmore Recreation Centre. Game time is 7 PM.
The sixth-place Canucks (19-30-3) are playing very solid hockey of late going 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and have defeated the Eagles on three straight occasions – all by identical 3-2 OT scores.